92%

The God of All Machines' pink screen displayed a string of green numbers climbing wildly.

48%.

49%.

50%.

The progress bar froze.

The red countdown in the upper-right corner hit seven zeros.

The piercing ticks stopped dead.

The Core of the Abyss, Principal's Office.

Yang Yu leaned back on a leather sofa.

The pad of his index finger tapped the mahogany armrest.

Tap, tap, tap.

The sound echoed through the empty room.

A holographic star map flickered in midair.

Half the dense field of white lights was gone.

The Abyss's territory had expanded thousands of times over.

The hundred layers of the Abyss Continent had come together to form the rough outline of the Great Universe.

But tens of thousands of red dots still glowed along the edges of the star map.

Lucifer pushed the door open and walked in.

Her heels clicked against the floor tiles.

She carried a stack of physical documents half a meter thick.

With a flick of her wrist,

the documents slammed onto the table in front of Yang Yu.

"Three days are up."

Lucifer pulled out a chair and sat down.

She crossed her legs.

"The rest aren't coming."

She took a silver nail file from her pocket.

"They've formed an Anti-Abyss Alliance."

"They've cut off every interstellar Teleportation Array network."

"They've even set up an Artificial Gravitational Collapse Belt at the edge of their star domains."

Little White followed her in, carrying two still-dripping daggers.

Three large holes had been torn in her Maid Outfit.

Dark gray Stardust coated her black stockings.

"I'll take a team over and cut them down right now."

Little White flipped her wrist.

The dagger's hilt struck the corner of the table.

The glass of water on the table cracked into seven or eight pieces.

Water spilled across